


A Promise of a False Dawn

by TheMonocledMatineer



Category: Fallen London | Echo Bazaar, Sunless Sea
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen, Horror, I have stolen all your ideas, Non-Graphic Violence, Oh hai dere Lovecraft, One Shot, The dawn machine, whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:59:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8939080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMonocledMatineer/pseuds/TheMonocledMatineer
Summary: "It is quiet out and all I can hear is a low hum of that wretched machine. Oh god what is it... My crew... They are dead. Those cries are not of anything that could possibly live. They screamed, and yelled, and wept and clawed at themselves until they finally ceased. I swear the screams ended long after the clawing. ohgodhelpme. I heard splashes of some going over but I dare not step out to see if any remain. I... were we a success? Is this what the admiralty wanted? Did they know?"----A sunless drabble I did a while back featuring locations from the game as a crew goes sailing for the fabled Dawn Machine... Everything goes as well for the protagonist as you would imagine. Enjoy!





	

A Promise of a False Dawn 

 

Journal Entry #9  
Day 82

 

My Guiding Light Home,  
They say distance makes the heart grow fonder and I can but only hint at how these wretched endless tides that seperate us have made me long to see your sweet face again. I continue this journal in the hope that one day I will come across it again, after I find the so called Dawn Machine, after I return to you and we settle into the cottage by Watchmaker's Hill whose deeds are promised us... And maybe even after we have children who will make their own legacies. Then, and only then, will we look back at this journal and fully, without the leering haunts that drag me down now, be able to look at my work and say it was worth it, for it is only through you I can judge my actions.

I write this entry having just sailed past The Shattered Cathedral. Sweet mercy, do you remember the stories I told you of that place? Of the men and women I lost? The monks there described it as a level of darkness only fond in a place what was once bursting with light. I may not remember the light but I can certainly understand the sheer absence of it which seeped through the pores of that hell. Sailing past it made me want to write again, made me think of you.

But it is by the by, I should write about happier things, no? Who would have thought after years of slaving yet mastering this unforgiving terrain my magnum opus would arrival from the admiralty. The admiralty! An honour if ever there was one, after years of service - to sail such a fine vessel with a distinguished crew and to be told, this is yours, you are worthy. From the admiralty! Ha! Just writing those letters and dotting that i makes my hand shake. When he appeared at our doorstep I thought him one of hell's ambassadors, tax collector come to finally collect on past indiscretions. But no! Not a devil but an angel in a fine velvet tuxedo which soon I too shall own! When we go through the heart of the Khan empire the image of you adjorned with untold splendor shall be my lighthouse.

I shall admit, the admiral spoke little of our mission here other than to install this immaculate gem stone into what we find at the co-ordinates. I peeked at it today, as the glow from Volgoth's abyss illuminated it even from under the cloth which I keep it hid. It burned with a fiery intensity, as if the rays from the surface all were encapsulated in my palm and fought for dominance like a pack of rats. Looking back I hear the most seering, hellish screams, shrieks, cries for help, blood curdling condemnations and spite filled calls for revenge all somehow melded into one sound not even the trauma of the Shattered Cathedral matched. The strange part is I don't remember hearing it at the time.

But i'm doing it again aren't I? I should speak of triumph, not what is beyond me. It is not far to the 'Dawn Machine' now whatever it is. The admiral spoke in such hushed tones that I knew in my bones I was tasked with something important. D-A-W-N M-A-C-H-I-N-E. Do you think it has something to do with returning us to the surface? To feel the sun of our childhoods again and not this fake illusionary imitation? To no longer live in a society where the depths of your soul could fester away in the shadows and rejoice in its own self indulgence. I hope so.

Maker keep us safe,  
K.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------

 

Day 97  
Journal Entry #10

My Guiding Light,

It is not far now! The crew are becoming restless, only a handful of them have gone this far out before. We have long since lost any signs of what passes for civilization and now the only light comes from our fog light. Sometimes we hear the ripples of the monsters which lie below and even have to turn that off, just for the modicum of hope it provides that it will not turn its gaze to us. At first I admired this ship but this far out I feel so woefully underprepared. The nights are cold, we have started to argue amongst ourselves despite having enough rations to last us to the Dawn Machine and back to the heart of the Khan to resupply. We have our days though, just last night we all sat around with some spirits to raise our own and all simply talked. As if we were home amongst the warm wreaths of the Flute Street pubs.Conversation was light at first but after a few shots we shared zee stories and what had led us here.

Ne'er a soul was not tainted in some way.

I suppose that's how they earned their stripes, they had to go through the ringers to make it-but no, scrap that these were different. These souls had all tainted themselves. Betrayed fellow crew, lovers, even empires. Stood at the top of mountains and blasphemed on high. Farmed souls on the market. Sold revolutionaries to the masters, and masters to the revolutionaries. Some were filled with regret and others were not. Some crimes I can scarely bring myself to think of they were so offensive. Yet I admit, I felt a kinship with them at this time no matter how horrendous the crime. I just thank God I do not have to count myself among them.

I shall write once we meet our destination,  
K.

\------------------------------------------------------------

 

Day 103  
Journal Entry #11

My love I see something! On the horizon! It... Is beautiful. This must be it! It is gigantic, the size of the largest kracken cannot compare with the magnitude of this sight. It shines with a majesty I have not seen and yet even as all of my crew stand outside in awe I cannot for the life of me say what it is. It is clockwork, for that I am certain and a faint glow of the horizon stems from within it. Its parts are in constant motion and yet still. Grant me a moment, I shall continue this entry when we finish our task. The gemstone appears to know it is near home!

 

Ihav returned to my cbin to tke accnt of the evnts happenin ritenow. Thecrew suceded and now all I can hear is SCREAMING. Such h o r r i f ic sounds wails  
shrieks wailing  
cries calls howling

And the light  
it is so bright I cannot bear to turn my gaze from the paper. Is this what the sun is ???  
The crew are screaming and it will not end. Screaming and chanting the sun the sun. Why?

Why ???  
WHY WONT IT END.  
ITS IN MY HEAD ITS IN MY HEAD. I NEED THE DARKNESS. THE LIGHT FESTERS.

 

[intelligible scrawl]

I am sorry. I do not know what occured. I honestly don't even remember writing that.... Was it me?

It is quiet out and all I can hear is a low hum of that wretched machine. Oh god what is it... My crew... They are dead. Those cries are not of anything that could possibly live. They screamed, and yelled, and wept and clawed at themselves until they finally ceased. I swear the screams ended long after the clawing. ohgodhelpme. I heard splashes of some going over but I dare not step out to see if any remain. I... were we a success? Is this what the admiralty wanted? Did they know?

Will I get paid?

I am going to step out. I have to, I cannot stay here. It is dark again and the darknessissafe. I am safe. I am safe. How can I not be with you waiting back in London? I am master of this zee, I worked too hard for this to end from some faux, empty horizon. 

...If I dont write again. Forgive me...ohgod everyone forgive me I should have known. The sea does not forgive.

 

\------------------------------------

THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN. THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN. THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN..THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN..THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.THE SUN.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------

Day: Unknown

Journal Entry #18

 

It has been...so...long.... I am so tired. I think I shall rest here. Finally I am in the right frame of mind to write this down for you. You will hate me, but you will understand, which is enough.

My crew... Some had remained. Dead, of course. Scratch marks all over their body. At first I did not understand how but I do now. How I have prayed to forget what I know. To know how foolish I could be... And how flesh tearingly vile.

No divine intervention can stop the ghastly vision of their faces come back to me every time I close my eyes. It was horror but more than that it was the face of someone whose sin had caught them, grabbed them by the neck and tore out their soul through their wailing jaws. Maybe I am projecting but it was what I felt and I suffered but a glimmer of what they did.

The screaming I had recollected without memory, I see now. I see it A-L-L. The admiralty knew. They *had* too. They brought us together. If by a miracle you see this one day my love I hope, oh how I hope that you believe me. I am paranoid but I am not wrong. That machine? It destroys the darkness, the light it produced was a horizon, a new dawn. What seperates us from the surface dwellers? The darkness. The darkness of the iconoclastic Neath which tears down the laws of life and death and makes us free to fester in the shadows... It protects us. It gives us freedom to do as our whims take us and gives us the environment we need to cope with the vile, wretched, disgusting, unholy things we then submit to.

Whoever controls the light, they control life, death and in a less real but an even more suffocating way, our souls and conscience.

We were chosen for this. They knew what the light would show of ourselves and what it would do to us. No witnesses to tell the masters of the things to come.

I now count myself amongst them. My comrades, that is. I had told myself what happened at the Shattered Cathedral was not my fault. I was not to blame as they were. I did as best as I could at the time. And then the dawn changed that. Such lies I coddled myself with. When the light overcame me I saw into myself and saw what I protected myself from, the things I did and did willingly in the name of my survival. How I debased the law of God and of Man. I scarcely thought it in me but as I see the remains of the Shattered Cathedral as I write now I know I could do that and other things a thousand times over. Just to get here, to my own selfish goal I have had to be.. creative with what I can eat for food-andohgodiamsosorrymydarlingthisisallmyfaultIshouldhaveheededyoupleaseohpleaseplease. . .. .

Forgive me friends for how I have desicrated your corpses. May you find the peace I shall not.

 

\---------------------------------

I will leave it to the zee if this journal finds you. My guiding light.... I wrote earlier I could only judge myself through your eyes but as I look at the distant lights of London I fear how I will be reflected by your eyes more than I do in my wretched own. Know I shall lay myself to rest at the Shattered Cathedral and surround myself in the sweet darkness I so seek again. It is as the monks said, it is only now ive seen the light do I truly feel the depths of true darkness. And how I yearn desperately for it.

I made a mistake.... Once. And for that there is no forgiveness.

Yours forever,  
K.


End file.
